1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mobile communication system, and more particularly to an apparatus and method for testing performance of a mobile station having a global positioning system (GPS) mounted therein.
2. Background of the Related Art
Currently, there has been a great growth in the development and application in the field of information communication related techniques using a mobile station. In particular, the field of mobile stations having a position information collection system using a satellite communication, such as GPS, has been of increasing interest.
The “gpsOne” technology of Qualcomm Company is for tracking the position of a code division multiple access (CDMA) mobile station having the gpsOne function mounted therein. Tracking is done by a hybrid technique having a combination of functions of the GPS and a network based location termination technology. Thus, the GPS tracks the position of a GPS receiver on the ground by measuring the time required for a GPS satellite signal to reach the GPS receiver and the network based location determination technology tracks the position of the mobile station by measuring the time required for a CDMA base station signal to reach the mobile station.
According to the hybrid technique, a result of a GPS code phase lock is measured from a result of a CDMA code phase lock, and then transmitted to a position determination equipment (PDE). Thus, a resultant position of the corresponding mobile station, which is calculated by the PDE, is used to match a necessary application.
The related art technique has various problems. For example, the technical document CL93-V2244-1 (2002.3.14.) of Qualcomm Company does not propose an adequate test procedure, except for only a partial setting required for the idle mode test.
Also, according to the related art test procedure, values of non-volatile (NV) items (or parameters) stored in a mobile station under test (MSUT) are changed for the test procedure. For this change, the MSUT needs to be re-booted, thereby requiring additional time for re-booting.
That is, corresponding parameters are defined and stored in a non-volatile memory of the MSUT, and the MSUT attempts to register itself at a base station referring to the post-test parameters when the MSUT is booted.
Specifically, the parameters as defined above are called the NV items. Since most NV items are referred to in booting the MSUT, the re-booting of the MSUT is necessarily required for changing the NV items and then applying the changed NV item values for the post test operation of the MSUT.
Hence, according to the related art test system, the performance test may be performed in a state that the test equipment is shared by at least two MSUTs. An actual test procedure, however, has not been defined.
Also, in order for the values of the NV items of the MSUT to be changed for the related art test proceedings, the MSUT must be re-booted. This requires an additional re-booting time since the MSUT must be re-booted once during the test for mass production, a test time of several minutes is required for each MSUT. This deteriorates the test efficiency.
Also, no solution has been proposed to overcome the problems for the test proceedings that may be produced when the MSUT attempts to register itself at a base station referring to the NV items before the NV item values proceeding with simultaneous booting of several MSUTs are changed.
Especially, the related art test system cannot solve an impedance-mismatching problem that may be produced when an inferior MSUT is connected to a divider.
The above references are incorporated by reference herein where appropriate for appropriate teachings of additional or alternative details, features and/or technical background.